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Todd happy with Test laws

Date published: October 7 2016

All Blacks flanker Matt Todd believes the variation in laws that he had been exposed to in the Mitre 10 Cup won’t hamper him in Saturday’s Test with South Africa.

Todd, who is starting ahead of Ardie Savea in Durban, said the majority of his rugby had been played under the laws applied at Test level and was looking forward to enjoying getting back to the old habits as opposed to the new ones required of the law trials in New Zealand’s domestic competition.

“It is a little different but I don’t think it will be a big deal,” he told the All Blacks’ official website.

“I probably prefer these laws so happy to be back playing them.”

The 28-year-old said it would be good to play under skipper Kieran Read because he knew his game having played with him so much for the Crusaders.

Todd said he had been in and out of the team environment enough that he was comfortable with everyone in the side.

He was looking forward to playing alongside Jerome Kaino who was a very physical, and dominating, player.

Meanwhile, AllBlacks lock Sam Whitelock said he was feeling ‘nice and energised’ after coming off the bench last weekend against Argentina and he also couldn’t wait to play.

The retirement of Victor Matfield had left a big hole for South Africa to fill but his replacements had stepped up and had put their own spin on the role and were starting to grow as a combination.

“I think if you look at how those guys have been playing throughout the Super Rugby and the Championship they are really evolving their game and bounce off each other really well so that’s something Brodie [Retallick] and I have to confront early and make sure we stay on top of it the whole game,” said Whitelock.

South Africa had an ‘awesome’ lineout for so many years, even from the pre-lifting days, and the All Blacks had worked very hard to counter that and there were still a lot of things to develop and get better at but they were happy with how they were doing at the moment.

“But we’re always trying to push it and grow that area of our game,” he added.